Class Year
2019
Document Type
Blog Post
Publication Date
1-9-2019
Department 1
Civil War Institute
Abstract
Looking back on the practices of Civil War Americans, many people tend to believe the Civil War was a particularly dark time in medical history, a time when doctors sawed off limbs to solve any problems and often did it with dirty instruments and no anesthesia. This idea of Civil War medicine is a misconception because most amputations were, in fact, done with anesthesia and the Civil War did introduce many improvements in the medical field. In fact, the Civil War can be seen as a turning point from more ancient practices of medicine to more modern practices. [excerpt]
Copyright Note
This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
Recommended Citation
Labbe, Savannah, "A Complete Transformation of Medicine: John Letterman’s Ambulance Corps" (2019). The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History. 321.
https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/compiler/321
Comments
This blog post originally appeared in The Gettysburg Compiler and was created by students at Gettysburg College.